Growing Discontent and The Second Emigration

Russian Passport of the Heinrich Döring family. The family arrived in Portland in 1903.

Beginning in the 1870’s the Russian government initiated a series of reforms to unify and modernize the sprawling Russian Empire.  Oppressive taxes, forced military conscription (Catherine’s Manifesto had promised exemption from military service), and the imposition of the Russian language in schools spurred another great migration, this time to Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and the United States. 

In the United States, the Homestead Act offered free land and aggressive marketing of newly opened prairie lands by railroad companies in the 1870’s attracted many Germans from Russia.  Many Germans from Russia settled on the Great Plains – so reminiscent of their home on the Russian steppes.  As they did in Russia, the Germans from Russia settling in America desired nothing more than to transfer their old ways upon a new land.